How I Got to Georgia College (pt2)

I had just drove back from Fort Lauderdale after sleeping in and being too late to the class to attend.  I went on to Outdoored.com to look for possible work that fall and found something I wasn't expecting.  You see, it took me 7 years to finish my first master's degree.  I paid as I went and then took over a year off before working on my thesis.  The nice part about that is not owning any money once I got my diploma and hood.  The last thing on my mind was going back to school.  I did a job search for the southeast because I enjoy warmer weather and on the list of jobs is a graduate assistantship.  I clicked on the link and read about the graduate assistantships offered at Georgia College in their M.Ed. in Outdoor Education Administration.  What?  Could it be that I could get a degree that's directly applicable to my career?  (side note:  I believe both my BA in Humanities and my MLS are directly applicable to life overall).  But I had just finished a master's degree, did I really want to start back to school again?  The possibility for a tuition waiver and a stipend was too good to pass up, so within a week I had signed up for the GRE and sent in all my application paperwork.  When I headed for Maine the only things missing from my application file were letters of reference and my GRE scores.

While in Maine I had a phone interview with Jude Hirsch, the chair of the Department of Outdoor Education at Georgia College.  She explained the program and it sounded perfect.  The next step was to wait and see if I got awarded a graduate assistantship and then find housing.

I believe I found out later in June that I had been accepted into the program and that I got a GA.  Now was time to find a house.  I had been told about the "farm" from another person entering the program.  When I came to visit the school in July I was given a tour of the famous "farm" by one of the second year grad students.  After looking at one of the trailers to possible share with a first year student, I opted to take the third bedroom at the pyramid trailer where my tour guide lived with another 2nd year grad student.  The other trailer was just two small for two people, but had an amazing front porch which is where my kayak currently resides.


The trailer I currently live in is called the pyramid due to the obvious fact that it's painted to look like a pyramid.  Why you ask?  Well, this trailer, along with another one on the farm, used to belong to the Nuwaubians.  After their compound was raided the trailers went up for auction and the owner of the farm purchased two of them.  The other one has been painted white, but ours is still the original pyramid block design.  It's a nice place to live.  It's on the outside of town and I can't see any of my neighbors.  There's another trailer on the farm that apparently belonged to Janis Joplin.


My room isn't tiny, but it's too small to fit my queen size bed in and still have a desk and my gear fit, so I've been sleeping on a twin blow-up mattress all semester.  At first I was going to buy a bed, but then I figured I already owned a bed and wasn't going to shell out the money for a temporary one.  Perhaps next school year I'll live in a place that will fit my queen size bed.  One of the "fun" quirks of the trailer is the shower.  Due to a broken knob you have to use pliers to turn on the cold water.  


That's the story of how I came to Georgia College.  Now I can start writing on all the trips I gotten to take this fall with class and for fun, including going to Las Vegas for an experiential educator conference.